Podracer Pilots - SW [TPM 3D] - Exclusives

Podracers compete in the Boonta Eve Classic Podrace, a highly competitive and dangerous event held annually on Tatooine. During the race, Clegg Holdfast and Mars Guo crash their Podracers, victims of sabotage by a fellow Podracer. Teemto Pagalies falls out of the race when his vehicle is shot by a Tusken Raider. Dud Bolt tries to eliminate a Podracer but crashes his own vehicle instead. Gasgano is one of the lucky ones to reach the finish line, coming in second place after Anakin Skywalker.

It’s time to party like it’s 1999 all over again. Get used to this play on words. Most of the administrators of the various fan sites you visit grew up in the 80s. And it’s something we are unwilling to bury away. The Phantom Menace is making a reappearance in theaters in 2012 and for the first time Star Wars fans can see the first episode of the saga in state of the art 3D. Whether this is your bag or not, a new Star Wars multimedia event means new Star Wars product by various licensees and Hasbro is all ready to go with some cool multipacks and basic figures all inspired from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Toys R Us picked up the very cool Podracer Pilots multipack set. Podracer fans can either rejoice or yawn over this five-pack of figures. There are no new figures at all brought to this set, but there are plenty of new things about it to enjoy. Because we personally have been collecting since the dawn of time, we are especially grateful to Hasbro for adding something “new enough” to this set to make the purchase relatively worthwhile. The set isn’t cheap and borders on expensive. Retailing for $26.99, buying the five figures separately throughout the years could have maybe only saved you a dollar, so being that the set of five is still almost the same speaks volumes. But that doesn’t mean it’s a total deal here. These figures are small and the MSRP averages them to $5.40 each. We don’t think that’s cheap for figures of this stature and quality of articulation.

The figures included in this set span between the years of 1999 and 2009. We literally have a decade of technology, approach and style thrown into one box. Interestingly, this hodgepodge of parts work very well together despite what is seemingly a motley crew of disorder (for the most part). You can obviously tell what figures could stand to see more articulation of slightly better sculpts, but they all relatively look like contemporaries of each other and since they’re in this box together, that is a wonderful thing. We’ll go through each figure chronologically. Gasgano is the only podracer pilot resurrected from the original Episode I line which was originally released as 1999's EI Gasgano With Pit Droid figure two-pack. A mix of swivel and ball-socket articulation graces this figure, but the arms still fall off with the slightest bit of movement, just like the figure from 1999. The figure has indeed been repainted. We bet Hasbro no longer has the original “blueprints” to this figure, so they followed up with something very close, but different enough to notice. No Pit Droid comes with the figure this time, but that’s OK because we get other things with the figures this time.... more on that in a moment. Teemto Pagalies joins the box set from 2002’s SW “Saga” collection and was released as 2002’s SW Teemto Pagalies (Pod Racer) ('02 #46) figure. This figure had terrible articulation and an even worse stance in 2002 and not much has changed a decade later. We can say that this version stands a lot better and the all-new paint job has some better (and worse) moments. It’s not all good. His expression looks more “cartoony” than ever unfortunately.

The Saga Collection’s Dud Bolt & Mars Guo (SAGA 051) has been revisited in the Podracer Pilots set too. This great duo has also been repainted. Dud Bolt has a more differences in his paint job this time around where the differences on Mars Guo are much less noticeable. In fact, he is the only figure in this set that would be the easiest to claim is a straight repack. As you already know, The Saga Collection was excellent and many of the all-new figures of that era had awesome articulation. Dud Bolt & Mars Guo aren’t perfect in that area, but they’re pretty excellent and hold up as two of the better figures in this multipack. Both figures come with their respective goggles and blasters. Clegg Holdfast also has received new paint operations and was first available as 2009’s LC Clegg Holdfast (BD11) figure. This time around he has much more pronounced tan color in the face and it looks so much better with it. And he still comes with his blaster and goggles. Perhaps the best parts of the Podracer Pilots exclusive are the included flags. They are made from PVC plastic and can be held by the figures that have sculpted gripped hands. They’re beautifully colorful and add a whole new level of excitement to this set and the flags alone make this set a very worthwhile purchase. Also of note, the action figure stands are black, the die is black and gold and the Galactic Battle Game cards are newly designed. This is the way to repack figures. It may be 1999 all over again, but Hasbro is styling it like it’s 2012.